a third ship , the carnival said .
the rain was houston -- hurricane harvey settled over southern texas on saturday , causing widespread destruction and dumping rain that will drench the southern part of the state for days .
texas attorney general ken paxton said harvey is ( adds whereabouts of two more ships , comments from port director ) houston , aug 25 ( reuters ) - cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers were stranded in the gulf on friday as hurricane harvey , a category 4 storm , came ashore in the middle of the texas coast , closing the port of galveston .
in addition to loss of power , emergency personnel in the communities northeast of corpus christi where harvey made landfall are reporting loss of cellphone service and other forms of communication .
hurricane harvey brought down a power pole in corpus christi , texas late friday , aug. 25 , 2017 .
winds slowed throughout the day saturday as harvey lost strength , becoming a tropical storm by saturday afternoon .
the storm was the first category 4 hurricane to hit the continental united states in over a decade , and the first to make landfall in texas since 1961 .
the electric reliability council of texas , which manages about 90 percent of the state 's electric grid , says there were 211,000 outages in the few hours after harvey made landfall friday night as a category 4 hurricane .
but the relenting winds are little relief for residents stuck in the storm 's path .